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Zoonophobia

Published 22 July 2000

From Toshi Knell

It was heart-warming to read that next year, mice will be incubating women’s eggs(1 July, p 7).
The benefits to the few are worth the risk to the rest of
our species. They must be, since the concerns of those of us who harp on about
zoonoses—diseases spread from animals to humans, which scientists still
don’t understand and certainly can’t deal with when they break out—are
just chalked up to “people being worried”.

Although we have the means to do these things and are doing them, we don’t
have the knowledge to understand or the means to sort out the inevitable
consequences.

When will the full-scale frenzy of using other species as our accessory banks
get questioned? Or is zoonosis just an unsexy word?